Rant - Shame Food

I like to think I have good taste—literally. I love food, as my mild girth will attest to, and between my dad’s frequent culinary experiments and my own burgeoning kitchen creativity (emphasis on the “burgeoning”) I’ve developed a healthy respect for sustenance done right. However, I’m also in my early twenties, a year and a half out of university and basically poor, so between homemade butter chicken and lavish amounts of penne noodles I’m apt to stuff myself full of the worst “food” imaginable. And I love it. The following dishes make me feel genuine remorse, as if I’ve actually killed a part of myself, but Goddamn I love them so.

Rant - Lesser Known Physical Laws

The following fragments were found scribbled on several napkins left at Professor Brian Cox’s table in a London pub.

Rant - Carry On Wayward Son

I seem to have developed a secondary musical taste.

Yes, it’s a strange thing to say. Normally when one talks about developing a secondary anything they’re usually referring to some bizarre mutation: secondary organs, secondary limbs, or any other biological redundancy that might result from proximity to Chernobyl. I’ve never been off this continent, let alone within range of Ukraine, and so I’m unable to link this newly discovered tangential fondness to the ill effects of radiation, but it’s a mutation nevertheless.

Rant - "All this has happened before, all this will happen again."

This is going to be unforgivably nerdy.

This month, DC Comics is rebooting nearly all of its titles. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Action Comics, Detective Comics, Green Lantern et al. will all be reset to #1, as will (presumably) the stories of those depicted in each one’s pages. If I’m to use the hastily improvised analogy of DC as a militarized force, Justice League #1—August 31st—is the forward scout, and the flagship titles set to premiere next Wednesday will make up the first wave. I suppose the new Hawkman will head up the air squadron, though judging by the pang of shame I just felt it seems I’ve taken this metaphor too far.

Analysis - Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart"

Scrolling through my iTunes playlist can be a little odd. It’s an even balance of rock, electronic, jazz, movie soundtracks and some lighter, folky stuff, with a dash of pop or alt country thrown in to taste. I don’t consider myself a connoisseur, at least not on the level of my dad (“Check out this Norwegian saxophonist.”), but I like to think that by this point in my life I’ve acquired a decent musical education.

This post is not about my iTunes library, however; it is, at least, initially, how the alphabetical arrangement of my iTunes library led to the calming strains of Bon Iver’s “Calgary” fading out and being replaced by the opening notes of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart. But primarily it’s about how the music video for “Total Eclipse” is simultaneously the most inexplicable and awesome short film ever shown on MTV.

Rant - Me and Inland Empire

Being a functioning member of society, I'm often asked what I've been up to as of late. Given my sedentary lifestyle, I'll likely respond, "Nothing much. Caught a movie." The other party will then inquire, "Cool. Which?" From then on in, the conversation proceeds in one of two possible directions:

Case the First

Me

[insert name of film]

Other guy

What's that about?

Me

[tentative pause]

or

Case the Second

Me

The Dark Knight. Again.

Other guy

Fucking awesome, is it not?

Me

In-fucking-deed.

Both parties then proceed to bump fists or exchange an intricately detailed handshake whilst quoting lines from the movie.

Nine times out of then it's Case the First (I'm not that sad, folks). The pause noted above is in reference to an ongoing internal debate on my part--that being exactly how to answer the question posed. You'd think this would be easy, but seeing as how I'm a film geek rather than a productive member of society I have a propensity to watch films that make answering this question all the more difficult. Thus, with Case the First, I end up facing another two-pronged dilemma: do I tell them what it's about on a literal level, or do I describe its overarching themes, issues, etc.? Again, an issue that's almost entirely nonexistent for normal people but a likely occurrence for me.